An individual who claims to have maintained an account with JPMorgan Chase for the past 18 years has gone viral after claiming the bank abruptly closed his account without any prior notice or explanation.
According to a user’s viral Reddit post, his Chase cards stopped functioning unexpectedly, and a fast online inquiry revealed that his account had been permanently closed.
The individual claims bank representatives assured him he would receive a letter with additional information, but that never materialized. He was instead kept in the shadows and permanently banned.
“As confirmed, Chase has shut down all operations. There is neither a warning nor an explanation. Yesterday, I was required to withdraw all my funds, and they advised me to retrieve everything from my safety deposit box. Additionally, I am prohibited from doing business with Chase. My credit and banking history has remained untouched by any anomalies compared to the routine transactions I have conducted for years. Has anyone else experienced this before? This appears to be a case of you, not me, so kindly remove my contact information from your phone. Abstain from reaching out.”
The user’s remark, published on the r/Chase subreddit, has received no response from Chase.
Banks have the authority to cancel accounts at will and have done so more frequently in response to suspicions of suspicious activity.
Financial institutions must furnish the government with suspicious activity reports (SARs) when they have reason to suspect the activity of a particular account.
A mere 4% of SARs submitted by banks to law enforcement result in a follow-up, and an even smaller percentage of those follow-ups culminate in arrests and convictions, as reported by the Banking Policy Institute.
The total number of SARs submitted by banks in 2014 was approximately 830,000.
This number has increased substantially in recent years; in 2021, there will be approximately 1.4 million SARs reported.
JPMorgan Chase has faced allegations of systemic discrimination against its clientele this year as well.
In May, Republican attorneys general from 19 states levied allegations against JPMorgan, alleging that the bank unpredictably closed bank accounts and engaged in “persistent” discrimination against its clients based on religious and political biases.
